First phase of Kanas City Chiefs owners' Ocala industrial park wraps up construction
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Dec 8, 2023

The first building in a 1.4-million-square-foot Ocala industrial park has wrapped up construction.

A partnership of Hunt Midwest, controlled by the Kansa City Chiefs’ Lamar Hunt family, and Ocala-based Boyd-Mox are developing the Ocala South Logistics Park within the Florida Crossroads Commerce Park.

The first building, which began construction in March, is 251,388 square feet. It was built speculatively, without a tenant in place. The developers are willing to accommodate tenants as small as 50,000 square feet. It has 32-foot clear height, 67 dock-high doors, two drive-in doors, 60-foot-deep speed bays and 247 car parking stalls.

Clear height refers to a warehouse's vertical stacking capacity. Storage capacity has become a major consideration for warehouse tenants in a post-pandemic world. Supply chain issues during the pandemic caused many companies to switch from a "just-in-time" inventory model to a "just-in-case" strategy and keep more inventory on hand.

In August, Ocala was recognized as an emerging industrial hub by CBRE. From Ocala South Logistics Park, companies can reach more than 65 million consumers with one-day shipping and 230 million consumers with two-day shipping, according to Hunt Midwest and Boyd-Mox. Logistics giant Fed Ex Ground has a large presence in Ocala, as do Amazon, Chewy and supply chain services company McLane.

“This is a great building in a fantastic location that is setting the bar for future area development,” Kevin Sheilley, Ocala Metro Chamber and Economic Partnership CEO said in a statement.

CBRE’s Rian Smith, Kris Courier and Josh Tarkow are marketing Ocala South for lease. Evans General Contractors is the park's general contractor; Kimley Horn is the engineer, and LS3P is the architect.

“Ocala South Logistics Park is the perfect location for businesses in central Florida to expand with a great labor pool and immediate access to Interstate 75,” Mike Bell, Hunt Midwest senior vice president, said in a statement. “Building I will give those companies an immediate opportunity to retain their existing talent and attract new employees from an incredibly strong local labor force while continuing to capitalize on Ocala’s strategic location to reach millions of consumers.”

Thad Boyd, chairperson of Boyd-Mox Industrial Development, said there is strong demand in Ocala for rear-load warehouses.

“Ocala South Logistics Park Building I represents the only available rear-load product in the market, and we are excited to serve our clients with this Class A building," Boyd said.